Typically, internal combustion engines are fluid cooled using a liquid coolant flowing through a heat exchanger, such as a radiator, cooled by air. Liquid cooled engines usually have a circulation pump.
Modern internal combustion engines may also be provided with separate circuits for the cylinder head and cylinder block of the engine, enabling faster warm-up of the engine. The respective cooling circuits are designed using controllable coolant pumps, for example a main water pump and an auxiliary water pump that are provided with controllable valves that manage the coolant flow rate between different heat exchangers.
During warm-up of the engine, the main water pump may be inactive until exhaust gas recirculation or EGR of cylinder head cooling is required, while the auxiliary water pump may be running only during start/stop operations and as a function of heating demands.
These cooling systems need a complex piping architecture to allow coolant delivery in the desired areas.
Accordingly, there is a need to create a high-efficiency heat exchanger system to recover heat coming from fuel combustion and from exhaust gas of the automotive system.